Photographing Men wasn’t something that I had planned on focusing on in my career. My endeavors were more so geared to creating content that appealed to a female audience. I spent the earlier part of my career focused primarily on beauty, hair, and fashion photography. It really wasn’t until I started trying to expand my social media presence that I realized there was a growing market of male consumers in the portrait market. Let me clarify, I spend a lot of time studying other markets outside of photography. By actively studying these other industries, I’m able to learn how they’re adapting to the ever changing economy. I have the ability to learn and incorporate their successful product and marketing strategies into my own photography business.

When it came to Photographing Men, I saw a growing number of male entrepreneurs using social media to market their businesses. As I’m sure you know, many entrepreneurs don’t have the most forgiving profile images, and I instantly saw that as a business opportunity. Simultaneously, I found that in the world of photography education, no one specialized in men’s portrait photography. You had photographers who specialized in boudoir, weddings, and fashion, but no one focused on Photographing Men. So I decided to hit the books, and see what the educational side of men’s portrait photography had to offer.

Truthfully, I was unimpressed. The books, videos and educational content catered to photographing men were satirical at best. Some of the poses were of men replicating martial arts moves and were relatively comedic. Nothing that I saw talked about photographing men in a refined way.

Now, I’m personally an avid reader of GQ and Esquire Magazines. The men portrayed in those publications, along with the men that you see in commercial ads aren’t depicted in a funny way. In fact, they’re portrayed in a very refined and interesting manner. Given the disconnect that I saw, I decided to study men’s portrait photography and compiled my findings into my first book, conveniently titled, Photographing Men.

So, how does that whole story apply to you? Well, you can learn a lot by studying my method of analyzing markets. The first thing that I did was conducted market research. I analyzed the market and the competition. Once I decided that there was little competition and room in the market, I was able to create a highly specialized niche in my field. That’s the mindset a photographer and entrepreneur should have – an ever evolving necessity for growth.